Browsed byTag: photography

I live a little over an hour from Thermal, CA which is home to HITS Coachella — the west coast WEF. I’ve driven in to the show grounds a lot recently to get my horse show fix, have face time with folks at work and most recently meet the fabulous Gingham with her pony crew, Windsor and Quiz. As I walked through the horse show texting Gingham to find out where she was, I got a flash of messages on…

True story – I wanted to call this post “FEI Friday” but it’s not Friday and I don’t want to wait that long to post about the show, so here we are. As a horse show spectator, I am spoiled. I’ve seen a lot of Grand Prixs and a lot of top hunter and jumper riders compete, but I don’t think I’ve actually seen a true Longines class. For some reason I had this built up in my head as…

It’s been a pretty whirlwind week over here in SMTT land. Between getting my house ready to put on the market for lease, writing some posts for Jumper Nation, riding nerd horse, looking for apartments in California and smattering in some social activities between all of that… my blogging power is fairly zapped at the moment. Because I need a bit of a zen break, I’m going to share some photos from my Japan trip today. These were all taken…

I’ve long considered myself a shamateur photographer. While I can reliably produce shots from horse shows that are marketable (in my opinion), portraits and other types are photography are a whole different ball game. I discovered a long time ago that if I wanted to get good enough to offer services as a serious professional, I needed to invest a ton of money into better equipment and countless hours into practice. When you think about doing that but see teenagers…

One time my super cool California friend took me to La Jolle Cove near San Diego, and I was surrounded by sea lions and harbor seals. This trip was made even more fantastic by three things: I listened to a This American Life episode years ago all about the cove and the battle between animal activists and beach patrons. It’s really interesting, and you can listen here. You can get close enough to touch the animals. Of course I don’t…

I spent my New Years with old friends in the California desert. Joshua Tree reminded me a lot of Big Bend in Texas. It’s a surreal, almost alien like desert landscape. While Big Bend was red and mountainous, Joshua Tree was tan and filled with boulders. Both are beautiful. My itinerary in Joshua Tree consisted of hiking with my friends and hanging out at the house after. There’s really no night life to speak of in the desert towns near…

I grew up watching Jack Hanna on TV showcasing all sorts of amazing animals from this legendary place called the San Diego Zoo. When I was younger, I was pretty sure that I’d grow up to be a marine biologist, zoologist or exotic vet… so I took all things animal pretty seriously. The San Diego Zoo was all over my favorite TV Channel, Animal Planet, as the be all end all zoo in North America. I didn’t know what wondrous creatures it held,…

I’ve mentioned it here before, but when I was a kid I was obsessed with whales. I had little books about marine mammals, with profiles on every type of whale and dolphin. Bottlenose dolphins were my favorite, and the white speckled dolphins were my least favorite (which seems dumb now, because those sound super pretty and I would like to see one). In the whale world, I very much preferred tooth over baleen whales. Humpbacks were okay, but I didn’t like…

One of the great things about having a barn family versus somewhere to just take lessons is that nobody questions why you would choose to spend your entire weekend at a horse show where you are not showing. Instead they say things like, “We’re ordering pizza for the classic. Can you bring ice for the beer?” Why yes, I can bring ice. I can also drink 3 ciders in an hour after not eating much and being super dehydrated. I can…

Though I’ve never been someone to manically follow careers of race horses and make sure I watch every single stakes race on television, I do appreciate horse racing. I’m a fairly terrible track photographer, but find horse racing so visually fascinating that I never pass up an opportunity to go with my camera. When a friend of a friend had a few horses running in the Saturday night meet, I jumped at the invitation to shoot some races before it…

Something light hearted today! At the show a few weeks ago, one of our green horses had a green horse moment at his first show and a good rider came off. That’s not really that unusual of a story, but the epic save she almost had is what makes it blog worthy. I got permission from this rider (who you can tell from the photos is an excellent sport) to share the photo series with you all. My favorite part…

The North Carolina State Fair is not only one of the best fairs in the country, it’s also synonymous with my childhood. I have crisp memories of my Dad carrying me on his shoulders around the potted mums and Village of Yesteryear in-between riding the swings and winning giant stuffed animals. Since moving from NC, I’ve sampled fairs in New England and Texas but nothing compares to the original for me. When I was planning a trip back home this fall, I knew a…